Updates

My post is a little more lighthearted this week because I just wanted to give some general updates on what is going on with me.

During my last temple shift, I was assigned to the main waiting room for the first time. I think I love this post just about as much as I love being assigned to the celestial room. It is almost impossible to keep from smiling in this post. You are seeing people enter the House of the Lord. How could you not smile at the thought of that?

I love watching as they scan someone’s recommend, knowing that that person is worthy to be in the presence of God is an amazing feeling. I wish that everyone coming into the temple could have that view and feeling about themselves and their temple worthiness.

Nursery is a fun calling. I love seeing the children every week. We have been blessed with a full nursery the last couple of weeks. There is one little girl that just turned 18 months a few weeks ago. She cries every time her parents leave her in nursery until I pick her up. This past Sunday the other leaders tried to comfort her, but she kept crying until I held her. I want her to be able to play in nursery with the other kids, but for now she’s attached to me for the full 2 hours. Hopefully she will get more used to nursery and have fun there.

My nephew has also been attending nursery the past couple weeks. It’s been fun having him there since he is one of the few kids that doesn’t cry when he walks in. The first week he just walked right in and started playing and was staring at the other kids wondering why they were crying when there were so many fun toys around.

The Humanitarian Center is a good place to be, but I’m going to start looking into what more I can do. I feel that I still have some time on my hands and I want to start doing more. I have requested information on a few other opportunities and hope to hear back from them soon.

We had a missionary appreciation lunch at the Humanitarian Center this past week. Sister Ubeck, the head of LDS Charities, was the speaker. She told us about some of the stuff that we don’t see that the church does and how the church decides how to help. I was amazed by a couple stories that she told. One story was about a refugee camp that needed washing machines. The government asked the church to provide the washing machines and they would provide the building and plumbing. 200 machines were donated for the project.

Sister Ubeck told us that the church looks for ways we can fill gaps. Like the need for washing machines, there are many other needs that the church has been informed of and filled the gap. After the presentation, one of our service missionaries talked to Sister Ubeck and learned that the church puts out over 5 million dollars a month toward helping people. I’m not sure what all is included in this figure, but it’s amazing to know that the service of the church is never just a one time deal. We continue to serve and will continue to find new ways to serve as long as there is one person on Earth who needs our help.

If you would like to learn more about what the church does to help others, visit the LDS philanthropies site: http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/. There is a link on that site for LDS charities, which includes the Humanitarian Center’s work.